Fan Tutorial - Desktop Fan Modes

Did you complete our Beginner Tutorial Part I and our Beginner Tutorial Part II?

Congratulations, you will now learn how to create different modes and time sequences of the Fan with only a few steps.

This tutorial will take approx. 15 minutes to complete.

(1) Add Modes

Some values are not static but depend on the state of the product you are building. This is what modes are made for: they track different configurations and their relationships with your product.

Define the modes of your system: different speeds, power modes, and ON/OFF-states.

Our motor can run at 3 discrete speeds which can be modelled by "modes". Therefore, to create these 3 modes, open the Motor (1) component. Then:
- Click on the Modelists tab (2) in the top bar as shown

Click on the + at the bottom right to add a new Modelists
- Insert name = speed_settings (1) and ´#´ number of modes = 3 (2)
- Click Create (3)
Click on the arrow on the left of the new modelist
Rename the speed_settings field names by clicking on the default names a,b, and c and change them to:
- a = ZERO
- b = LOW
- c = HIGH

Go back to the Valis page by clicking on the Properties tab in the top bar alongside Modelists
Click on the + button to open the 'Create Property' dialogue and choose Matrix (1). Add the following properties:
- Name = rotational_speeds (2)
- Mode reference = Motor.speed_settings (3)
- Unit = rpm (4)
- Click Create

Note: Since you are adding the “Mode reference”, the number of rows and columns will be automatically taken and filed from the modelist directly. Therefore, you do not have to define the rows and columns in the above step.

Expand the properties of the Vali rotational_speeds by clicking on the arrow
Change the values (which currently are 0) by clicking on them. Modify them to the following:
- ZERO = 0
- LOW = 2000
- HIGH = 5000

The matrix properties now shall look like this:

Now create another mode for the speed_controller: click on the component Speed_controller (1). Go to the Modelists tab (2). Add a new modelist with:
- mode name = power_modes
- number of modes = 2
Rename the names of the fields: a = ON and b = OFF (3)

Repeat these steps to add a mode for the component Fan (1) with:
- mode name = state (2)
- number of modes = 3
- fields names OFF, MIN, and MAX (3)

(2) Make Valis Mode-Dependent

Now that you have defined the modes of your system, you can make Valis dependent on them. A Vali might not always have the same value, but a value dependent on a certain mode.

Make your PowerConsumption Mode-Dependent

Open the component Fan and go to the Properties in the top bar
Click on the Vali PowerConsumption to show the Vali description
Click on the button Make mode dependent

In the pop-up, select mode = Fan.state and confirm with Update
Repeat the same procedure for Motor and Speed_controller:
- Go to the PowerConsumption of the Motor, click on "make mode dependent" and choose Motor.speed_settings in the pop-up
- Go to the PowerConsumption of the Speed_controller, click on "make mode dependent" and choose Speed_controller.power_modes in the pop-up
Then, change the values of the power consumption of Motor and Speed_controller in the different modes by clicking on the respective values under the Value heading according to the following:
- Motor:
  - ZERO = 0
  - LOW = 1.0
  - HIGH = 4.0

Speed_controller:
- ON = 0.1
- OFF = 0

(3) Link the Modes

States of a system can depend on each other. This is why in Valispace you can link modes that belong together.

Create a connection between Fan-states and the modes of Motor and Speed_controller.

Go to the Fan component
Go to the Modelists tab from the top bar and click on the mode state
Click on the linking symbol

Click on Select Modelist, select Speed_controller.power_modes and click + Add Link
Click on Select Modelist, select Motor.speed_settings and click + Add Link
Now select the links between the Modes as follows and don’t forget to save:

Click on the Fan component. Go to the Properties tab. After Valispace has finished its calculations, you can observe that the Fan PowerConsumption has changed to the following values:

Next Steps?

Congratulations, you now know your way around Valispace!

You can continue improving your Desktop Fan project. Here are some ideas:

Write some marketing material in Word and use the Valispace Word Plugin to include technical values that are automatically kept up to date with your design
How about creating a simulation to calculate the resulting air displacement depending on the fan modes? You can directly access all Valis from Matlab, using the Valispace Matlab Toolbox
Add a solar panel component to make the fan portable. You can make the maximum rotational speed dependent on the sun angle of the solar panel